His friend Pierre Louys visited Wilde in the hotel with his wife Constance, who tearfully pleaded her husband to come home, but it was a failure. His friends were concerned and disappointed mainly because Bosie’s imprudent behavior exposed Oscar to very serious risks: it openly violated the “Criminal Law amendment Act” of 1885, an amendment which made “gross indecency” a crime in the United Kingdom. Since 1893 Wilde preferred to stay in a hotel to avoid scandals in order to meet freely and secretly his young lovers, but Douglas, instead, was not interested in hiding at all: he always entered from the main entrance. Alfred Taylor (son of a manufacturer), Sidney Mavor (future priest), Maurice Schwabe and Freddy Atkins, Edward Shelley for a short time and Alfred Wood, a boy of seventeen, who blackmailed him obtaining 30 pounds, were some of those “panthers” who crowded Wilde’s chamber. H e once said that attending these young guys was like “ feasting with panthers. Wilde did nothing but follow him dispensing money, gold or silver cigarette cases and other gifts. It was Bosie who introduced Oscar to the circles of young male prostitutes, rent boys who were readily available in spite of (or perhaps because of) the moral climate of the straight-laced Victorian Period.

He used to spend money on boys and gambling and expected Wilde to contribute to his expenses. However, Bosie was not that “angel” he apparently seemed to be, but rather, he was usually described by his closest friends as spoiled, reckless, insolent and extravagant. Oscar was even introduced to Bosie’s mother, Lady Bracknell, and he made her one of the characters of his most popular comedy: “ The Importance of Being Earnest“. He is quite like a narcissus – so white and gold (…….)Bosie is so tired: he lies like a hyacinth on the sofa, and I worship him”. In a letter to his friend Robert Ross Oscar writes:” My dearest Bobbie, Bosie has insisted on stopping here for sandwiches. The writer had little desire to hide that relationship and Bosie was even more eager to show it, as he wanted everyone to know that he was Oscar Wilde’ s “favorite”. The rumors about their lives ran all over London. Oscar, thanks to his lawyer George Lewis, solved all and since then they started to date and by the end of December 1893 they had become inseparable. At the end of June 1892 Douglas needed Oscar’s help, because he was being blackmailed. Bosies’s cousin, Lionel Johnson, had lent him a copy of “ The Picture of Dorian Gray“, and after reading it “ fourteen times in a row” he wished to be introduced to the author and so at the end of June 1891 Lionel Johnson accompanied his cousin in Tite Street and introduced him to Oscar Wilde. The story of his relationship with Wilde began in 1892.

He looked like an angel: fragile, with a very pale complexion, blonde hair and blue eyes, but often appearances can be deceptive and this case was no exception. Lord Alfred Douglas, nicknamed Bosie, was a young aristocrat and poet, the youngest son of the Marquess of Queensberry.

Oscar wilde and alfred douglas